Charlotte Fien is a 21-year-old woman. She also has Down's Syndrome. And, less than three months ago, upon sending her speech to the UK House of Commons, her writing was forwarded to the United Nations---where she was invited to speak at the Human Rights Committee in Geneva in celebration of World Down Syndrome Day 2017.
Inspiration for the speech was triggered after Fien viewed the BBC 2016 documentary, "A World Without Down's Syndrome?" The documentary explored the "advanced technology" behind the urged Non-Invasive Screen Testing, or NIPT, and records report the statistics involved in pre-screening:
"Since 2012, 100 percent of Icelandic babies found to have Down syndrome have been aborted. Since 2014, 98 percent of Danish women carrying babies diagnosed with Down syndrome have chosen abortion. In Fien’s native Britain, the figure is 90 percent."
Fien's speech was met with five minutes of standing ovation. The young woman clearly expresses her fear that, with a surge of the new screening, there may a near-future world in which Down Syndrome people are completely non-existent. Charlotte, also called "Charlie," exhorts people to remember that the only difference standing between her and other people is an extra chromosome. She, as well as other peers born with the Syndrome, are "happy...human beings":
“I am not suffering. I am not ill. None of my friends who have Down’s Syndrome are suffering either. We live happy lives. We just have an extra chromosome. We are still human beings. We are not monsters. Don’t be afraid of us. Please don’t try to kill us all off.”
Fien speaks two languages and is undeniably passionate---a remarkable tool and testament used by God in a day and age where the value of life is determined by supposed "productivity" regarding Society and State.
Doctor Jérôme Lejeune first identified the "cause" of Down Syndrome in the 1950's. Little did he know---and to his actual dismay---that his studies would further an increase in abortion rates. According to the well-intentioned pro-life Roman Catholic, the syndrome was caused by maternal syphillis---a "discovery" which turned many women onto a frenzy of panicked abortions. Lejeune later became the founder and president of Pontifical Academy for Life. His scientific discoveries are soon to be remembered by way of canonization.
Lejeune was a powerful voice in the insistence that life begins scientifically at conception:
"To accept the fact that, after fertilization has taken place, a new human has come into being is no longer a matter of taste or opinion. The human nature of the human being from conception to old age is not a metaphysical conception. It is plain experimental evidence."
